Property Crimes Update after Targeted Enforcement Implemented

On April 9th, Spokane County Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich held a press conference where he informed the citizens of Spokane County about the growing problem of property crimes/residential burglaries and how these crimes had dramatically increase during the
first few months of the year. He explained this could not be tolerated and had developed a plan to address this criminal activity.

Sheriff Knezovich announced he had met with the Board of County Commissioners and was forming a Burglary Task Force as well as increasing targeted patrols to address this problem. He explained the Burglary Task Force along with the Spokane County Sheriff’s
Office Investigative Task Force, property crimes detectives and the patrol division would be working on this problem.

The implementation of Sheriff Knezovich’s plan along with the increased community involvement and tips combined with the hard work and dedication of the law enforcement professionals involved has been very successful.

Statistics show from May to June:
• unincorporated residential burglaries were reduced by 18%
• unincorporated garage burglaries were reduced by 32%
• unincorporated commercial burglaries were reduced by 48%
• unincorporated property crimes (total) were reduced by 19%

When comparing the first quarter of 2012 to the second quarter, these efforts show the total number of unincorporated residential burglaries was dramatically reduced by 23%.

Since April to July 15th, the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office and the Spokane Valley Police have arrested 214 suspects on a total of 728 charges. In addition, continuing investigations show an additional 30 charges or more may be pending. These pending charges
included felonies such as Burglary, Trafficking in Stolen Property and Possession of Stolen Property.

Sheriff Knezovich stated, “All property crimes including vehicle prowling and malicious mischief need to be addressed when possible. We must make sure the criminals who commit these crimes understand, we as a community, will not tolerate their criminal activity
and they will be held accountable.”